The unemployment rate in Italy has decreased to its lowest level since March 2008 in July, the latest data by the National Institute of Statistics showed.
The jobless rate was reported at 6.5% in July, down from 6.9% in June.
In comparison, market consensus had pointed to a rate of 7%.
The number of unemployed persons dropped by 107,000 to 1.660 million in July, the data showed. It has been the lowest total since March 2008 as well.
Meanwhile, the number of persons in employment went up by 56,000 to 24 million in July, or the highest on record.
The EUR/GBP currency pair settled 0.04% lower at 0.8407 on Friday. For the week, the minor currency pair went down 0.62%, while extending the losses from the prior two weekly periods.